I work for one of the largest software companies in the US. Today, for the third year, I attended the annual presentation by engineering interns on projects that they had been working on for the past three months in the company.

As I mingled with the crowd, I noticed that the young, bright postgraduate interns from the top universities were all from Asia, mainly India, China or Taiwan. I even met a Chinese Malaysian and an Indian Malaysian last year. The majority of these students will stay on in the US to work after graduation.

I begin to wonder, will something similar ever happen in Malaysia ? Bright, young minds attracted to study in Malaysian universities, doing internships in local companies like Petronas, then staying back to contribute to Malaysia's economic progress.  

Definitely not in my lifetime and probably not for the next few generations if nothing changes.  Even if Malaysian universities can attract bright students to come over to study, and the government offers them a chance to stay back, why would they do so? Not if they realise they would eventually live as citizens with less than equal rights.

On the other hand, we are losing our brightest students to countries overseas like Singapore, Austrialia and the US. Many of our brightest students, having failed to get scholarships locally, opt to apply directly to overseas universites for scholarships. And these countries will be only too happy if they stay back after graduation.

Our government politicans continue to give the excuse that Malaysia cannot attract back their doctors and other professionals working overseas because of the pay. But for many of us working overseas, the pay is not the main stumbling block that prevents us from returning.  

It is the thought of how our children will fare in Malaysia, enduring what we have experienced: treated with less then equal rights and given less than equal opportunity. It is hard to accept that, after having lived for a while in a society where everyone is treated equal regardless of race.

But sadly, nothing will change, as many of our ruling party politicians do not consider the migration of  non-bumiputera professionals and brightest students overseas as a serious problem for the country.